by Magan Vernon
Sofie lifted her chin, looking down at me with her heavily painted eyelashes. "I'm just saying if I was going to hang out with an Olympic swimmer, and had a rack your size, I wouldn't be wearing combat-looking boots and a sweater that hides your ginormous cleavage.
I rolled my eyes, tossing my hands out to the side. "Uh, these are Steve Madden hiking boots and it's like two degrees out, so why wouldn't I be wearing a sweater? Not everyone needs to see my goodies all of the time."
"Whatever." She sighed, standing on her tiptoes to look over me. "I thought he was supposed to be here by now."
I glanced over my shoulder, only seeing the neighbor's front porch light, but no cars anywhere in sight. "He should be here any minute…"
"You don't think he stood us up, do you?"
I bit my lip, hoping that wasn't the case and opened my mouth to try and reassure Sofie when the screech of tires sounded. I whipped my head around to see a large black Navigator rounding the corner.
Sofie placed the tips of her index and middle finger in her mouth, pulling them out and into a V shape as she slid them along her eyebrows. "It's show time."
The Navigator came to a halt in front of us as the back door was thrown open to Jay sitting there with his million-dollar smile.
"How much?" I heard one of the guys call from the front seat.
"You couldn't afford us." Sofie laughed as she climbed in after me.
I slid into the seat next to Jay and his arm went around my shoulder, his fingertips sending a rush of warmth through me. "You're freezing."
"If you would have given us better directions here then they wouldn't have been standing outside all night," Scotty yelled from the driver's seat.
"Hey, it's not my fault you can't understand north or south." Jay laughed, leaning forward and hitting Scotty on the back of his head.
Johnny almost choked on the long licorice rope he had been gnawing on from the front seat as he laughed at Scotty, a red goop forming on his chin.
Scotty glared at Johnny as he peeled, a little too fast, out of the neighborhood. "Shut up Johnny, it's not like you know the difference either."
"That's why I'm not the one driving." He slurped the red goop from his chin. I tried not to curl my lip in disgust, but Sofie was practically drooling as she stared at the two of them.
"Oh, uh, Johnny, Scotty, this is my best friend Sofie." I tilted my head in her direction.
Scotty glanced at Sofie from the rearview mirror, giving a small nod, but it was Johnny who completely turned around and extended a sticky hand in her direction.
"Pleasure." He smiled, his teeth caked in red.
Sofie giggled, the color rising in her cheeks as she took his sticky hand. I made a mental note to get her some hand sanitizer.
"I wouldn't touch that, I don't know where it's been." Jay leaned over the seat, looking at Sofie.
Johnny snapped his hand back from Sofie's, throwing the end of his licorice rope at Jay. "Man, shut up you don't know what you're talking about."
Jay flicked the licorice off him as if it were a fly before raising his hands in the air, "Hey I'm just telling the girl what I heard."
"All right, so now that, that's out of the way, where are we going?" I questioned, trying to get away from the subject of sticky hands and focusing on Jay's fingers and the feel of him.
"Rock and bowl," Scotty yelled.
"We're going to the bowling alley?" Sofie's eyes grew wide and I was hoping she finally realized that her high-heeled boots and one shoulder top were a bad idea.
"Is this what elite athletes usually do for fun?" she whispered, glancing in my direction.
I shrugged as Jay leaned his head against mine. He smelled even better than I remembered. Like some expensive cologne, but he also still had the scent of chlorine on his skin. Like it would never leave. In a totally non-creepy way I just wanted to sniff him all night long.
"If you'd rather go back to the ranch, we can do that too. I found some more albums up in the attic," he whispered, his lips vibrating on my ear.
I clenched my legs closed, trying not to think about what Sonny said. About what Jay wanted from me. I had to play it cool.
"No. Rock and bowl is totally fine."
The bowling alley was about a twenty-minute drive from my house. You could practically see the neon signs from the highway that advertised every single beer known to man. Scotty circled the parking lot until he found a spot near the back of the old brick building and hopped enthusiastically out of the car like he was running into the summer sun instead of the cold night air.
"Do you really think we're going to be able to just walk into a bowling alley without getting mobbed by a bunch of fans and reporters?" I asked as Jay took my hand to help me out of the Navigator.
His hands were so soft yet so rough at the same time. They were mainly hands. Manly large hands. I wondered if what people said about big hands were true. I'd never actually seen a penis in person except for when I babysat or watched really bad scrambled porn at Sofie’s.
Yes, I get it. Loser.
Now I was holding hands with one of the hottest men alive and thinking about penises.
He tilted his head, letting his eyes scan the parking lot. "I think you overestimate the power of swimmers. No one is going to be following us unless we're at the pool and it's usually just swim bloggers. Nothing too exciting. Well most of the time."
I didn't want to mention how much I'd seen of him on TNC, especially now since Jay had resurfaced on their radar. I just chewed on my bottom lip and kept my mouth shut.
"Come on, Lia, do you think anyone cares if Jay Morningstar is around? He's the least attractive of us. Now me on the other hand..." Scotty poked his head in between Jay and me. He smelled like a mixture of expensive cologne and Oregano. The scent was enough to defrost my nose.
I arched an eyebrow looking over at Scotty as he slid out in front of us, a cock-eyed smirk on his face before he opened the glass door to the bowling alley.
We stopped at a small desk where a bored looking teenager barely looked up for us to pay. I wasn't expecting Jay to pay, so I brought my wallet but he moved too fast for me to even offer. Before I knew it, his hand was back on mine and we were making our way through the bowling alley.
A few older guys with long white beards and leather jackets stared at us as we entered, but quickly went back to their drinks as if we weren't interesting enough. Beyond the bar, the bowling alley was only lit by black lights with the fluorescent signs on the walls glowing against the lanes that hadn't been updated since the 1970s. I'm pretty sure they weren't exactly up to code with the squeaky ball returns and peeled wooden lanes.
"I get the pink ball!" Scotty yelled, making a beeline for the last lane with Johnny following close behind. Most of the other people bowling were at the other end of the bowling alley. Aka a lot of middle school kids who were too busy grinding up on the person next to them to some screaming dance music and didn't even notice us between the flashes of strobe lights.
Sofie couldn't take her eyes off of the boys as she followed them like a small puppy toward the lane.
"Looks like she's enjoying herself." Jay leaned in toward me.
"I hope she's not the only one," I whispered, trying to be seductive and rubbing my side against his, but tripped over my own feet and almost face planted right into a rack of bowling balls.
"Whoa." Jay put his arm out in front of me, stopping my body before I fell to the floor.
Scotty and Johnny looked up from the ball rack, their eyes widening.
"Didn't know you were that excited about bowling." Scotty laughed, rolling a bright pink ball between his palms.
"Oh yeah, all Sicilian girls are really into knocking things down with huge balls." I rolled my eyes and stepped down to the lane.
"That's what she said," Sofie piped up from the other end of the rack. The comment made Scotty and Johnny crack up as they high-fived her.
I turned toward Jay. "Is it bad that I think my best
friend is on the same brain waves as Scotty and Johnny?"
Jay glanced at the three of them over my shoulder while I sat down next to him and shrugged my coat off and onto the chair. "Well, that depends."
He slid his arm around my waist pulling me closer, the barely-there stubble of his chin brushing against my face. "Do you want our friends to be distracted by each other so we can have more alone time or would you rather have them by our side all night?"
"Touché." I leaned in to kiss him when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I groaned, somehow Jay and I were always getting interrupted. I turned around to see Sofie staring down at me as she fidgeted from one side of her body to the other.
"Yes, Sofie?" I looked up and gave her a look that said, this better be important or I I’m going to kill you later.
"Um, I was just hoping you’d go to the snack bar with me and get a drink before we started playing." She wiggled her eyebrows motioning her head in the direction of the other two guys.
"Either your friend has some kind of a disorder, or she's trying to give you a hint at something." Jay laughed and slid his arm out from around me before squeezing my shoulder.
I rolled my eyes and stood up next to Sofie, staring right at her to answer Jay. "I think it's a little bit of both."
"Oh, come on." She let out a huge breath of air through her braces as she linked her arms with mine and dragged me toward the snack bar.
"Are we really getting drinks?" I leaned in, almost whispering as we exited the lane.
Sofie shrugged, "Maybe, but I just had to get out of there to ask you the game plan, so the guys wouldn't hear."
"Game plan?"
She rolled her eyes as her boots clanked on the linoleum floor. I had only seen Sofie wear heels about twice in our life. Once at our confirmation and the other time at our freshman homecoming. It showed since she wobbled on her tippy toes toward the concession stand. "Are we actually staying here all night? Aren't you worried about someone seeing you?"
I shrugged, looking around the bowling alley. I couldn't recognize anyone through the fog machine and our lane was all the way at the other end from where most of Rock and Bowl was going on. "I don't think anyone can really see us…"
Sofie pushed a stray curl out of her face as we approached the snack bar. "I mean I don't care if I get recognized with some of the hottest guys on the planet, but I could just imagine what your mom would say if she saw us on TV or something."
“It's fine. No one even knows we're here."
"Oh em gee!"
And with that high-pitched squeal I knew I spoke too soon. My body tensed as I slowly turned around to see Christy standing there with Abbey, a girl who went to college with us. I liked Abbey well enough; her biggest flaw was that she was always in Christy's shadow.
Shouldn't Christy have been at school or something? Though, she did come home for the weekend a lot. She said it was to see the ranch, but I always wondered if there was another motive.
"I knew it was too good to be true. There was no way a hottie like Jay Morningstar would stay with dough girl." She smirked, her lips that were practically sticking together from large amounts of lip gloss. "So instead you bring Tweedle Dumb with you, knowing this is the place we all used to go in high school when we didn't want to get carded. Still trying to be a cool kid, I see."
"Actually…" Sofie tried to speak, but her words were drowned out by Christy's witch-like cackle as Abbey whispered something in her ear.
"Come on Sofie, let's just go back to our lane…" I muttered, tugging at her shirt.
Sofie nodded with a look of defeat on her face as she put her head down and started toward the lane. But before we could even get two feet we were stopped by a familiar voice.
"There you two are!" Johnny came bolting toward us, almost crashing right into us. He stuck part of a licorice rope behind his ear and looked right at Sofie. "I was hoping you didn't ditch me for another guy or something."
Sofie looked up from the floor, her face almost as red as Johnny's licorice rope. I glanced over at Christy and Abbey who had their mouths wide open.
"Uh, yeah we were just about to get a drink," Sofie stammered.
Johnny put his arms out, interlocking his fingers with the loops of her skirt to pull her closer until their foreheads were touching. "Well, next time, tell me when you're leaving."
She barely got out a response when Johnny sealed her lips with his, bringing her into a kiss that I had to look away from, because it was way too passionate and really loud.
"Hey, Lia." Jay pounced from behind Johnny and ran up next to me, before doing a double take and staring in Sofie and Johnny's tongue-tied direction.
"Are they doing what I think they're doing?" he whispered.
I looked over in Christy's direction, but she had already stomped off with Abbey in tow
"Yeah…" I smiled, pulling him closer to my side and walked back toward the lane. "I don't think we're going to have to worry about them for awhile."
I was pretty sure we were free and clear of the Dolce drones and actually began to enjoy myself as we bowled. Even though it was Scotty's idea to go bowling, he was really terrible at it. He used the granny shot and didn't get a score that was higher than five each time he rolled the ball. That didn't stop him from smack talking everyone else when it was their turn.
"You got nothing, Morningstar!" he yelled crouching down right next to Jay as he got in position to throw his ball.
I watched the muscles tighten in Jay's back, his gray sweater molding into the curves of his shoulders. I bit my lip, and looked down at my already chipped nail polish, trying not to stare at his flawless body. But who could really help it? Jay Morningstar had been the guy of my dreams since I first saw him on TV and now he was really here. Not just standing in front of me but with me at the bowling alley.
I glanced over at Sofie to try and keep my attention elsewhere, but she seemed pretty busy with Johnny. They hadn't stopped making out since our run-in with Christy and I was wondering how much her braces had to hurt after that much tongue action.
"Hey." I was knocked out of my trance when Jay plopped down next to me, his body brushing against mine. His sleeves were rolled up and his skin felt hot against me, or maybe I was just burning from his touch.
I wanted to trace every line of the Olympic rings tattoo on his arm. He had another tattoo that was right underneath his left hipbone of a tribal shark. I knew about this because of all of the pictures of it on the internet, but I hadn’t seen it in person. But boy did I want to.
I looked up at his smiling face, trying not to think of his amazing hip bones."Did you win?"
"Psh." He leaned back."Do you really think Mr. Granny bowler could beat me?"
"Oh, you want a rematch, Mr. Show Off?" Scotty yelled hopping over a row of chairs and sliding his hand between Johnny and Sofie to break apart their make out session, all while still staring at Jay. I couldn't even chew gum and walk at the same time, yet these guys could multi-task with anything.
"Hey, watch where you're putting your hands. I don't know where they've been." Johnny leaned back in his seat, Sofie cuddling up next to him.
"Oh you know exactly where they've been. Wanna smell them?" Scotty looked over at Johnny.
"Get that shit away from me." Johnny swatted his hand.
"Oh, you wanna fight now, Romeo?" Scotty stepped closer, putting his hands out in front of him like a boxer with the cock-eyed smirk painted on his face.
"Alright…" Jay stood up, pushing his way in the middle of them. "As much as I love a good brawl, I'm starving and I say we get a burger before we bring the girls home."
"Oh, dude!" Scotty kicked off his bowling shoes "Can we stop at that awesome pizza joint where they put eggplant on the pizza instead?"
"Yeah," Johnny added, standing up with Sofie close at his side. "That place is the tits."
Jay shook his head. "Are you two really that stupid?"
"What?" Scotty slid into his shoes, hopping toward the stair
s. "Johnny's right, for once, that place really is the tits."
"Well for starters, Lia's parents own that place.”
"So that totally means free breadsticks?" Johnny followed behind Scotty, shrugging on his coat.
Jay started to speak, but I grabbed onto his arm, letting my fingers linger longer than I intended to. "Forget about it. You guys can stop there after you drop us off or something."
"You sure?" He turned toward me, the low lighting of the bowling alley couldn’t even dim the brilliant blue of his eyes and I wished at that moment I could just stay lost in them instead of spending the rest of the night probably listening to Sofie talk about Johnny.
I leaned in lightly letting my lips trail against his. "Positive."
"So are we getting noms or are you two just going to stare at each other all night?" Scotty yelled.
"Bro, I think you've had one too many concussions." Jay smiled and followed them out of the lane.
"Just because I don't have a mop of unwashed hair protecting my head," Scotty remarked.
Jay just shook his head, interlacing our fingers as we headed toward the door. "Sometimes I don't know how I do it…" he whispered, squeezing my hand.
It was a little past midnight and most of the kids bowling had cleared out of the place, so it just left the locals at the bar, who seemed to look at us differently as we passed. Like this time they might have actually realized that they were staring at three guys who had been on national TV and broke some world records. I wondered if they knew the whole time, or how they actually figured it out. I shrugged the idea off as I zipped up my coat, preparing to meet the cold night air. But as we stepped out of the door, I was greeted by more than fresh falling snow and found myself staring right at a few camera's and the cheesy grin of Saul Parker from TNC.
"Jay Morningstar, you come to my city and don't give me a call?" he asked.
Jay kept his head down and a close lock on my hand, pulling me forward to the car. "Sorry, Saul, didn't know you were keeping tabs."
Saul and the camera guy followed our group as we made our way to the Navigator. Jay opened the back door for us and Sofie slid in first.
"And is this the new girlfriend? Will we be seeing more of her? Is she keeping you on the straight and narrow or will we see some more mug shots?" Saul asked.
